LAC exists to spread information about development issues and current events in Latin America in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Our main focus is the Latin America Report, which covers events related to development, human rights and the struggle against poverty and oppression in Latin America.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Solidarity News October 26th 2006

William Blum: Operation Because We Can: For 27 years, the most powerful nation in the world has found it impossible to share the Western Hemisphere with one of its poorest and weakest neighbors, Nicaragua, if the country's leader was not in love with capitalism. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15367.htm

Bolivia for Single, Free Health Care: The Bolivian government pledged its commitment to a single and free health system in which all citizens have the same rights, according to a proposal presented to the Constituent Assembly on Saturday. http://tinyurl.com/yj78wt

Adios Ruiz, Bienvenidos AEPO

By Julie Webb-Pullman

Eight thousand members of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) arrived in Mexico City Monday, having left their home on 21 September to march almost 500 kilometres to Mexico City to demand the ouster of their Governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. They accuse him “of irreparable damage to human patrimony, of the assassination of social leaders, of the mismanagement of state finances, of “ethnocide,” of violating United Nations and UNESCO decrees including the guarantee of individual liberties, of promoting violence in the state” and of being incapable of resolving conflicts through diplomatic means.

Since taking power in December 2003, Ruiz has systematically persecuted his political opponents, killing 38 leaders of indigenous’, workers’, and independent organisations, ‘disappearing’ a few more, and detaining and incarcerating more than 200 political prisoners.

Whilst his relentless repression, corruption, and abuses of human rights terrorised many into silence, the teachers of Oaxaca spoke for all when on Mexico’s Teachers’ Day on 15 May this year they said, Ya Basta! Enough! http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00173.htm

OaxacaNancy Davies' new commentary from Oaxaca reveals that, despite the continuing repression in that rebel state and the seemingly endless stalemate on a solution with the federal government, the people continue to find new reasons to have hope. She describes ten key developments from the last few days, including:

"Over the weekend in the capital city of Oaxaca, during a forty-eight hour period, ten different marches took place. They followed a public funeral in the zocalo's central pavilion for Alejandro García, who died from a gunshot wound to the head while he was at the barricade in Colonia Alemán, bringing coffee to the night team. A car with four military men in civilian clothes, recently seen leaving a local cantina, tried to beak the barricade. During the ensuing scuffle two members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO in its Spanish initials) were shot, the second victim in the arm. The accused soldier, Jonathan Ríos Vásquez, declared himself innocent."

"...An indigenous Nahuátl and Mazatec community radio station, Nandia, was attacked and destroyed by government agents. The women who ran the station belong to an organization of Mazatec indigenous women. After the attack they tried to leave the small northern town of Mazatlán Villa de Flores to travel to the capital, hoping to make known their outrage (non-licensed indigenous radio stations are presumably guaranteed in the Oaxaca state constitution), but the only road out of town was blocked by people identified only as Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) loyalists. The Mazatec women were planning a hunger strike in the atrium of the Cathedral in Oaxaca. La Jornada of October 7 indicates that the attack was called for by the state interior secretary and was carried out by the local PRI. Now the women are calling on international support for the community."

"...In order for the Oaxacan people, authorities, and indigenous organizations to come together for discussions, the APPO and other various sponsors held the Dialogue for Peace on Friday October 13 in Oaxaca City. The importance of that meeting is that the former bishop of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz, once again showed up and spoke for five minutes. This indicates that Ruiz - who has come three times that I know of - has put his whole moral weight behind the Oaxaca movement, most likely because of the movement's importance for indigenous peoples."

Read Davies' full commentary, and keep following the events in Mexico's most indigenous and most revolutionary state:http://www.narconews.com

MEXICO: OAXACA STRIKE CONTINUES

After a heated all-night assembly, on the morning of Oct. 22delegates of 70,000 teachers in the southern Mexican state ofOaxaca voted down a proposal to end a strike that has paralyzedthe capital city, also named Oaxaca, for five months. At thebeginning of the assembly, Enrique Rueda Pacheco, generalsecretary of Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union(SNTE), announced that in a membership consultation held Oct. 19-20, teachers had voted 26,000 to 15,000 to accept an agreementnegotiated with the federal Governance Secretariat (interiorministry) and return to teaching on Oct. 30. But union delegatescharged that the voting was "rigged" because of the way thequestions were presented, and decided to hold a new consultationOct. 23-24. Many denounced Rueda as a "sellout" and "traitor."Anger at Rueda is so intense that he tried to slip into theassembly through a back entrance while wearing dark glasses.[Reuters 10/22/06; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/21/06, 10/22/06]

The teachers went on strike for cost-of-living increases andbetter schools on May 22. After Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz of thecentrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) tried to end thestrike with a police assault on June 14, the teachers escalatedtheir demands to include Ruiz's removal from office. Indigenouscommunities and social movements joined the mobilization, forminga coalition, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO).Together the teachers and APPO have occupied the capital'sdowntown area and many government offices for most of the lastfive months and have taken control of several radio stations.

The federal government, headed by outgoing president Vicente FoxQuesada of the center-right National Action Party (PAN), hasnegotiated on wage issues but refuses to discuss the removal ofRuiz. The federal Senate has the power to remove a governor, buton Oct. 19 senators from the PAN and PRI, along with the smallGreen Ecological Party of Mexico (PVEM), joined to block effortsto oust Ruiz. The APPO and many teachers say they will not endtheir mobilization as long as Ruiz is in office. [LJ 10/20/06]

The teachers say 10 strikers or supporters have been killed sincethe strike started. The most recent victim was Panfilo HernandezVazquez, an indigenous elementary school teacher. Several unknownpersons in a blue Jetta without license plates pulled up toHernandez on the evening of Oct. 18 as he was leaving a localAPPO meeting in the Jardin section of Oaxaca city. They shot himthree times in the abdomen at close range. [LJ 10/19/06,10/21/06]

A revolution with an absolute minimum of violence:- It’s not ‘news’ – but it should be Today it’s Sunday (8 Oct 2006) in Oaxaca, beautiful clear air, sunny, a morning to enjoy a mole tamale and hot coffee for breakfast.......... http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-10-13.htm===Human rights workers attacked Colombia:

Amnesty International released a report Sept. 7 blasting the Colombian government for giving a "green light" for attacks against human rights workers in the country.http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=4838 =======AMERICAS: INDIGENOUS OCT. 12 PROTESTSTens of thousands of indigenous people and their allies focusedon neoliberal economic programs, US foreign policies and localissues in protests throughout the Americas on Oct. 12, the 514thanniversary of the arrival of European colonizer ChristopherColumbus in the hemisphere.

Thousands of marchers celebrated the "Day of IndigenousResistance" in Guatemala City after the conclusion of aninternational meeting there on agrarian reform. The protesters--including campesinos from six countries and members of dozens ofGuatemalan indigenous organizations and the National CoordinatingCommittee of Campesino Organizations (CNOC)--carried signsdemanding "respect for multiculturalism," "no to discriminationand exclusion" and "stop the removals," referring to police andmilitary operations against campesinos occupying private estates.As the march passed by the US embassy, protesters denounced US-imposed neoliberal policies and demanded an end to aggressionagainst Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela.

On the Pacific coast, hundreds of Guatemalans blocked a highwayleading to the Mexican border to express opposition to thegovernment's rural policies. Other protesters blocked the Inter-American highway in the northwestern department of Huehuetenangoto demand an end to licensing for foreign mining companies. Therewere also protests in Quetzaltenango in the west, Coban in thecenter, and various municipalities in the northern department ofPeten, according to Juan Tiney of the National Indigenous andCampesino Coordinating Committee. [Prensa Latina 10/12/06; ElMostrador (Chile) 10/12/06 from EFE; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/13/06from AFP, DPA, Reuters]

Hundreds of Hondurans representing indigenous and African-descended communities demonstrated in front of the US embassy inTegucigalpa on Oct. 12 to protest economic policies promoted bythe US. The organizations called European colonization "the mostgigantic robbery of world history" and denounced "neo-colonization" by the "US empire." The participants includedindigenous Lencas from the western departments of Lempira andIntibuca on the border with El Salvador; the Lencas haddemonstrated on Oct. 11 against the building of the El Tigre damin their territories [see Update #861]. [EM 10/12/06 from EFE; LJ10/13/06 from AFP, DPA, Reuters]

The dam was also the target of a protest that dozens of CivicCouncil of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras(COPINH) members had held on Oct. 3 at the Club Campestre, 30kmnorth of Tegucigalpa, as Central American presidents met therefor a regional security summit. COPINH declared Salvadoranpresident Elias Antonio Saca persona non grata in Honduras forhis promotion of El Tigre, which "would put an end to entirevillages in San Antonio, Mapulaca, Piraera, Santa Lucia, Virginiaand La Virtud municipalities in Honduras, and others in ElSalvador, displacing more than 20,000 people, who would losetheir homes, their culture, their lands, their way of life andtheir social networks." The group also objected to the presenceof Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, Mexico's official president-elect,"given that his designation as president of Mexico is the productof shameful electoral fraud." [EFE 10/3/06 via Univision TV (US)]

In Colombia some 700 Bari indigenous people marched on Oct. 12 inTibu, near the Venezuelan border in Norte de Santanderdepartment, to demand that the state oil company Ecopetrolsuspend its exploratory drilling near their territory. The Bari,who say they have been victimized by government-backed"genocides" since 1932, carried bows and arrows along with signsin what was apparently their first protest. Interior DeputyMinister Maria Isabel Nieto had told the media that according tomilitary intelligence reports the Bari were being supported bythe rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).Observers from human rights organizations and the United Nationssaid they saw no evidence of involvement by armed groups. [ElDiario-La Prensa (NY) 10/13/06 from AP; LJ 10/13/06 from AP]

Lisardo Domico, general secretary of the National IndigenousOrganization of Colombia (ONIC), declared Oct. 12 a day ofmourning. He noted that violence against indigenous communitiescontinues--from the military, leftist rebels and rightwingparamilitaries. Some 104 indigenous people died violently in2005, he said, while 18 have been killed and 28 have beendisappeared so far this year; ONIC says 5,731 indigenous peoplewere displaced from January to September. [El Siglo de Torreon(Coahuila, Mexico) 10/13/06 from Notimex]

In Argentina, the National Institute Against Discrimination,Xenophobia and Racism, which is under the authority of theInterior Ministry, proposed ending Oct. 12's status as a holiday.Venezuela has already officially renamed the date "Day ofIndigenous Resistance" [see Update #820]. [LJ 10/13/06 from AFP,DPA, Reuters]Weekly News Update on the Americas http://americas.org

U.S. cuts economic aid for Colombia area: Six years and more than $4 billion in American tax dollars after Plan Colombia was launched in Caqueta, Colombia's army is still fighting rebels here, and coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine, is still the region's No. 1 cash crop.http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Colombia_US_Aid_Cuts.html

Friends of the Right to Know!Great news: the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled that there is a general right of access to information held by government. This is the first such ruling from an international tribunal. It's a decision to celebrate!The Inter-American Court's decision in the case of Claude Reyes and others vs. Chile was released today and finds Chile in violation of the right of access to state-held information (The case dates from a request made in 1998 by three environmental activists about a controversial logging project; no information was provided nor a reasoned refusal. For a reminder/summary of the facts of the case, see www.access-info.org). The decision also makes clear that to give full effect to this right, States must adopt legal and other provisions that ensure effective exercise of the right to information as well as define limited exemptions to be applied in ways that will cause minimum restriction of the right. The Court further requires the Chilean state to train public officials on the right to information and the international standards for exemptions.Spanish version of the decision: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/casos.cfm?idCaso=245Spies, Lies and Visa Red TapeThe Case of the Cuban Five and Their Wivesby Julie Webb-Pullman

Wow! The US doesn’t only do it in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Europe, Asia and North Africa – they practice cruel and inhuman imprisonment right there at home as well!! And despite the daily diet of anti-terrorist rhetoric their mainstream media dishes up as nauseum, for the last eight years there has been only misinformation, Miaminformation, or an iron curtain of silence regarding the treatment of five Cuban anti-terrorist political prisoners in the U.S. and their families. Http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00136.htm